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Webster 1913 Edition

Steelyard

Steel′yard

(stēl′yärd ; colloq. stĭl′yẽrd ; 277)
,
Noun.
[So named from a place in London called the
Steelyard
, which was a yard in which steel was sold.]
A form of balance in which the body to be weighed is suspended from the shorter arm of a lever, which turns on a fulcrum, and a counterpoise is caused to slide upon the longer arm to produce equilibrium, its place upon this arm (which is notched or graduated) indicating the weight; a Roman balance; – very commonly used also in the plural form, steelyards.

Webster 1828 Edition

Steelyard

STEELYARD

,
Noun.
[steel and yard.] The Roman balance; an instrument for weighing bodies, consisting of a rod or bar marked with notches, designating the number of pounds and ounces, and a weight which is movable along this bar, and which is made to balance the weight of the body by being removed at a proper distance from the fulcrum. The principle of the steelyard is that of the lever; where an equilibrium is produced, when the products of the weights on opposite sides into their respective distances from the fulcrum, are equal to one another. Hence a less weight is made to indicate a greater, by being removed to a greater distance from the fulcrum.

Definition 2024

steelyard

steelyard

English

Alternative forms

Noun

A 19th-century steelyard.

steelyard ‎(plural steelyards)

  1. A transportable balance with unequal arm lengths.
  2. A place where steel (and possibly other metals as well) is stored and sold.

Translations

Etymology

steel +‎ yard ‎(“enclosed area, rod”); sense of place a calque of Dutch Staalhof/Middle Low German Stalhof (Modern Dutch staal ‎(“steel”) + hof ‎(“court, yard”)). In sense of “balance” presumably from the place, originally “steelyard beam”, mixed with additional sense of “rod” (hence “rod for weighing steel”), replacing earlier Latin statera.

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